Methods of Persuasion (Nick Kolenda)

Nick Kolenda used to work as a stage mentalist, performing tricks like having audience members write something on a card and predicting what they wrote.

This tradition of stage magic is all about exploiting psychological principles of attention, distraction and persuasion.

In this book, Kolenda summarizes and organizes an enormous amount of psychological research, including much of what is covered in the books I've mentioned already. What is unique is Kolenda's framework for organizing these strategies in a series of stages, mimicking the stages a magician or con-artist or salesperson might work through in planning and implementing a persuasion strategy.

If you're interested in psychology and its relevance to business and marketing, you should check out Nick's blog. He creates massive, comprehensive blog posts that are incredibly well put together.